By Nader
Hirmas
Picture this: a
high-tech factory equipped with state-of-the art, mind-blowing machinery, each
with a specific role carried out to the optimum. You see production belts,
pumps, and a constant traffic of skilled workers and programmed robotics that
provide their maximum to accomplish their tasks. All entities work hand-in-hand
to generate the end-result as efficient and as remarkable as can possibly be.
Sounds super expensive
and quite utopian, right? Believe it or not, this high-tech factory represents
each and every cell of your living body. With its ongoing activity, there are
tons of different yet interrelated pathways taking place at the same time in the
cell, and each microscopic element fulfills a specific function in the pathways
directed towards a particular goal.
What is more, a
cell cannot function or survive on its own. Removing a cell from a living body
and growing it independently in a lab is fruitless. The cell requires a
community of neighboring and supporting cells, collectively known as the cells’
“micro-environment”, without which the cell cannot carry out its normal
physiological processes.
Just like the
workers and production belts in one factory need each other for optimal flow of
production, groups of factories communicate with each other and coordinate
their function for the collective good of the overall community: the living
body. These individual factories constantly send and receive signals to and
from their micro-environment, with some signals boosting specific production
belts, other signals slowing them down, and some others shutting off certain
belts completely. This intricate balance is constantly monitored and controlled
by the whole group to ensure the best results and avoid any uncontrolled
behavior.
Say a production
belt in one factory goes awry, a central generator irreversibly burns up, or
many machines break down. The factory itself will tone down or shut off its
production and focus heavily on solving the problem. Different factories within
the micro-environment hop to the rescue as well and send their highly-skilled
technicians to fix the problem in no time. Once the problem is solved, the
factory goes back to its normal functioning and in turn supports its
environment whenever required.
If the problem
is deemed unsolvable after numerous trials, workers of the ailing factory hit the
“self-destruct” button and sacrifice the factory itself for the good of the
whole community. If the cell does not opt for suicide (scientifically known as apoptosis),
cells in the micro-environment encourage the cell itself to self-destruct. If
there is no response for a while, the cells will send their secret agents to
push the button and finish off the task.
Quite brutal and
inhumane, don’t you think?
Well, suppose
one factory decides to drift away from the “normal” and function on its own as
an independent entity. The workers and machines have thus staged a coup:
they no longer respond to any external influences and have now boosted their
defenses as they focus on serving the factory’s major goal: survival.
The
micro-environment kicks in as expected. Cells send their technicians as before,
but those are not allowed to enter this time. Alarmed by this, the cells unite
and send their secret agents to fix the problem as soon as possible. Cells’
individual production will even be solely catered to this issue: preserving the
whole system, for if they do not, or cannot do this, the malignant cell
will multiply and spread the revolution elsewhere. Soon, normal cells find
themselves faced with masses of abnormal cells targeted towards destroying the
very body they are meant to serve. The local factory has gone wild, and the
body is now ailing with cancer.
So you see, even
though – from our points of view – the idea of self-directed suicide seems
rather cruel and horrendous, each of your individual cells is equipped with its
own “self-destruct” button and programmed to be interrelated and interconnected
with other cells in its neighborhood. Self-destruction thus serves as the last
resort after a series of efforts directed to the one purpose of cells’
existence: preservation of the community within the living body.
“Such are the parables which We
put forward to mankind that they may reflect.” [Holy
Qur’an, 59:21]
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